New Covenant Online Sermons

So we are finishing up Colossians this week with a last look at some very important instruction from the Apostle. Very practical advice about the Christian life. What follows is mainly names, greetings, and a few instructions rather specifically for the church there so we will, Lord willing, move on after this week.

It was great seeing a couple of new folks at the Senior Saints Bible study this morning. This is a fun group and we are always ready to welcome more. One of the highlights of it is sharing prayer requests with one another and spending some time together in prayer. This leads to what we will be doing Sunday morning. Prayer for sure, but also thinking together about prayer as we venture into chapter four of Colossians and near the end of our studies there. Interesting to me that our Senior Saints study today also took us into Hebrews which is where I am planning on going next for our sermons.

This week we reach the end of Paul’s “household rules” section in Colossians 3. He speaks to slaves and masters and so we will briefly address that situation especially in Colossae but also as a biblical and historical theme. Then we will relate the principles he gives to our work lives today. As the first Lord’s Day of the month we also will be coming together to our Lord’s Table. And of course praying for our nation and many needs. Oh, and, for those who sometimes look it up – the sermon title is a song by Jason Isbell mostly about his father.

I think every day this week the famous line from a Beatles song has come to mind, “I read the news today, oh boy!”. I try to keep politics and news and such out of the sermons as we seek the timeless truths of the Word of God. But there are times when this present darkness and biblical light collide and we must stop and look. As we talk a bit about the family, parents and children, especially fathers and children we come to one of those moments. That’s what’s up this week.

Moving on in Colossians we get to a set of “household rules” as they have been called. These are parallel to Paul’s development of them in Ephesians but somewhat more brief and some of the differences are interesting. Though brief, we are probably going to take them in three sermons. This week marriage, next week (Lord willing) parents – especially fathers – and children, and then the section on slaves and masters. We will need to address why this is there at all as well as what it means and then explore how it speaks to our employee/employer relationships. Hope there is something for everyone there each week.

I don’t think I have mentioned, or at least have not said enough, about the PCA dealing with racial reconciliation at both the presbytery and General Assembly levels for the past few years. There have been some strong expressions of guilt and repentance especially from some of the southern churches and presbyteries. Several large reports and lots of recommendations. We will at least touch on some of that as we move on just a little in Colossians to Paul’s call for unity and the necessary dropping of discrimination by those who are being renewed in Christ.

In the age of social media things like anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive words seem so common as simply to be the way things are. The way people are now. But Paul tells Christians to put them off. But Paul didn’t have Face Book or Twitter! Does his thinking still apply? Is it possible to live in our day and age and not be this way? From the tone of Paul’s directions it better be possible.
But then he goes on to further step on our toes. Maybe as Christians we see ourselves as nice and kind and none of that nasty list really applies. But, how often in our efforts to be nice do we shade the truth? He goes after lying next. Ouch. Can it be? We’ll see.